Back to Pachon

I went back up to Cerro Pachon for another training run, this time with James, another Gemini Fellow, who just also happens to be my friend and fellow UF grad. James and I have known each other for 7 years. The first time we met was on a volleyball court in Florida. The grad students in the astronomy department at UF had a picnic every year and one of the best things to do was round everyone up and play volleyball. I love the game, so it took no effort to convince me to give it a go. During one game, James was standing right next to me as I served up 13 aces in a row. From that moment on he called me Ace. In the hallway, around town, even we I came for my interview visit at Gemini, it mattered not - Ace I was.

Now, years later, James is the instrument scientist for T-ReCS here at Gemini, which is also the instrument I work on now! T-ReCS was built at the University of Florida by Dr. Charlie Telesco and many of the same engineers that worked with me on my instrument (CIRCE). It's a mid-infrared instrument. To give you some idea of what that means, our bodies glow in the Mid-IR. And when I say "glow" I'm not talking about the reflected light that lets one person see another. Instead I'm referring to the radiation that comes off our bodies, which is commonly known as HEAT. With the right camera you can "see" heat; T-ReCS has such a camera.

In space, you can look at a few things in the Mid-IR, but the most common is warm dust. Some astronomers would argue that the most important dust you can look at is that around young stars. That dust may be in the process of forming planets. So in the Mid-IR you can search for planets and solar systems in the earliest stages of life.

During this training run, I was going to work with James to (hopefully) learn more about T-ReCS. As it happened, we were splitting our nights with another team of observers using a totally different instrument. One of the members of the team was my friend Beth (from our Dieciocho adventure). So it was very nice to be up there with her and watch her work her astronomy mojo.

We ended up having good weather, but unfortunately didn't get much T-ReCS in. Still I'm getting more and more confident with the telescope and around the observatory in general. Next time I go up - I'll be on my own!

The dormitories on Pachon, our home away from home!


A comfy room in the dorms. Still the classic AURA furniture, though

The view towards the mountains from the dorm

It's amazing how little things; the view from the front of the dormitory, the wild horses roaming all around, the mountains in the background, really bring home the solitude and silence of the summit. For the first few night it can be a sanctuary - a place to run away from the constant goings-on of the world. However, for a people person like me, hanging out with only one other person for 5 days can be a bit trying! Still I've always liked observing.

Semi-wild horses roaming around the observatory grounds


The Cerro Pachon kitchen

Usually dinner is fairly good. I've had extremes on either end, though.

Looking toward the dome from the dinner table

Any dinner snafus are forgiven with a view like this

First Observing Run on Pachon

This week I had my first training run at the telescope. It was a really exciting experience, but before I go into the details, I just wanted to describe a bit about the observatory.

Gemini South is one of the world's largest telescopes, with a single 8 meter (~ 26 ft) wide mirror. As it's name implies, it is a "twin"; an identical telescope (named unsurprisingly Gemini North) is located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Meanwhile, Gemini South is located on Cerro Pachon, just a few peaks over from Cerro Tololo, where I did the bulk of my thesis observing. Pachon is about a two hour drive from the La Serena headquarters, which is quite a nice change. In the recent past, when I went observing, it generally required several days of travel, in planes, trains, and automobiles just to get to the telescope. Now, I hop in a caravan that drives us up to the observatory at 4:20pm and a few hours later I'm observing.

Gemini is not operated like any observatory I've ever visited before. Most observatories run in classical mode, which means that an observer applies for time to use the telescope, is judged on the quality of his/her proposal by a Telescope Allocation Committees, and if awarded time, flies to wherever the telescope "lives" to take their data.

At Gemini, after time is awarded to the astronomer, his/her program is placed in a massive database or "queue" with all the other winning programs. It is then observed sometime in the next six months by trained Ph.D. astronomers that work for Gemini. There are lots of reasons for this different system, not the least being that people get exactly the weather conditions that they ask for. With classical observing, an observer might come all the way to Chile only to be clouded or snowed out (and this has happened to me). With queue observing, unless an observer has a program that can handle some light clouds, their observations are only taken under clear skies. There are many other reasons for queue observing, but this is a large advantage.

As a Fellow, I will probably observe about 25 - 35 nights a year as a "queue" observer. My job is take make the observations for my colleagues in the Gemini science community who have programs in the queue. I will be trained as an expert on all the "cameras" at the observatory (we currently have 4 in operation that, but another 2 about to be completed). With one camera, I can image a distant galaxy or find out what is inside the remants of a dying star. With a different one I can look for the conditions that form planets around nearby stars. With the third I can investigate the regions where stars are born. The data are not mine, of course, unless I happen to have a project that is deemed worthy enough to observe with Gemini myself. Most Fellows do; they are so familiar with the telescope after a few years, they know exactly what it is capable of.

Anyway, this was my first time observing on Gemini. I was up purely for training with my officemate Etienne and only for two night. I wasn't particularly nervous, as I knew that I was just learning the very basics. Still I was excited for my first night on an 8-m class telescope.

I arrived at the dormitory and was surprised at how nice it was. Every place has its problems, but this was fairly nice for the middle of nowhere. The bed was soft and the bathrooms fairly modern. I was pretty happy about the accomodations.



After a relaxed dinner (summertime affords us quite a bit of time), I went up to the telescope with Etienne and Erich. Erich is an SSA, Gemini's version of a telescope operator. While the astronomers operate the cameras that take the images and evaluate all the data, the SSA is moving and monitoring the telescope. All our observations are taken as a two person team - and, in fact, no one is ever left alone on the summit.

Erich was very excited to have a reason to "show off". He moved the telescope and dome around a bit and I felt like I got quite a show. I took some amazing pictures.

The 8-m Gemini South Telescope on Cerro Pachon

The wind gates, open to let the dome come up to temperature

Erich and I with the telescope

The night was a fairly short summer one, but still frantic. For as experienced as an observer as I am (well over 50 nights at small telescopes and another 30+ at 4-m and up) I was pretty amazed at how different queue observing could be. I learned a great deal and I can't wait to go back up for my next trip.

The blooming desert on the way back to La Serena